Artifact Knowledge
Artifact Knowledge is now increased automatically every week and the cap has been increased.

As soon as you hit Level 110 on a character, all of your relic slots are unlocked and you will have Level 41 Artifact Knowledge.

You no longer have to do the Broken Shore quest line to allow your artifact to go beyond 34 points.

Artifact Knowledge will increase automatically every week. Research is no longer required!

Hidden Appearances- You are no longer required to be using your current specialization’s Hidden Artifact Appearance to gain progress towards unlocking its 3 color variants. You can now gain progress towards unlocking the 3 color variants of your Artifact’s Hidden Appearances set while you are in any spec and using any Artifact appearance

Challenge Appearances - You are no longer required to be using your current specialization’s Challenge Artifact Appearance to gain progress towards unlocking its 3 color variants. You can now gain progress towards unlocking the 3 color variants of your Artifact’s Challenge Appearances set while you are in any spec and using any Artifact appearance, as long as you have unlocked the base challenge appearance for a given spec.

The Appearance requirement "Defeat all Legion dungeons" has been changed to "Complete 10 different Legion dungeons", and now includes Seat of the Triumvirate.

Shocklight - While Concordance of the Legionfall is active, your Critical Strike is increased by 1,500. Approximately 2 ppm.

Infusion of Light - Your damaging spells and abilities have the chance to deal 101,000 additional Holy damage. Your healing spells and abilities have a chance to heal for 101,000. Approximately 4 ppm.

Secure in the Light - Your damaging spells and abilities have the chance to deal 135,000 additional Holy damage. Your healing spells and abilities have a chance to grant Holy Bulwark, absorbing 135,000 damage over 10 sec. Approximately 3 ppm.

Light's Embrace - Taking damage has a chance to grant you Light's Embrace, restoring 45,000 health over 6 sec. Light's Embrace may stack up to 5 times. Approximately 8 ppm.

Tier 3

Tier 3 consists of 3 randomly selected minor Artifact traits.

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Argus presents new challenges and one last desperate bid to put a stop to the Burning Legion’s invasions of Azeroth. To face these challenges, the forces of the Horde and the Alliance have gained access to an ancient and powerful tool to help enhance Artifact weapons—the Netherlight Crucible.

The Netherlight Crucible is an ancient remnant of Argus that once served as a source of considerable magic. Though its potential power is thought by many to be a gift, empowering it would require great sacrifice…as well as a delicate balance of Light and Shadow.

During your time on Argus, you’ll work toward a new way to customize and enhance the power of your Artifact weapon. The Netherlight Crucible’s power is balanced with both Shadow and Light, providing powerful upgrades to your Artifact Relics. The Crucible will attune your Relics and soulbind them to you while unlocking access to 3 additional tiers of power. These tiers are unlocked by increasing your total Artifact level and are fully unlocked once you reach Artifact level 75.

The first of these is Netherlight Fortification which will increase the item level of your Artifact weapon.

The second tier offers a choice between Light power and Shadow power. Each of these powers is randomly chosen from a pool of 6 possible unique effects. This tier becomes available once your weapon has reached Artifact level 60 and your Relic slot has reached level 2.

The third tier offers a choice of a second Relic trait that correlates to the either Light or Shadow depending on which was chosen in the second tier. These selections appear within the tree and branch from your previous selections. To begin unlocking this tier, you’ll need Artifact level 69 and Relic slot level 3.

Attuning Relics
In the Crucible interface, an additional standalone slot can be used to preview a Relic’s potential traits. These Relics will display whether they can be attuned and will show as compatible with your Artifact weapon within the interface. Once attuned, these can be used to replace other Relics within your weapon.

The decisions you make in the tree allow you to choose whether to focus on third-tier traits that modify your class, or the unique powers that can be gained from the Crucible.

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hey guys!

So, after yesterday's Q&A, it's become apparent that there's still some confusion about the Netherlight Crucible and how it works. We've been keeping an eye on your discussions about the topic, and wanted to give some explanations where we can, as well as open up a thread for any additional questions you may have.

Q: How do the Relic "talents" unlock?

A: As your Artifact increases in level (by spending Artifact Power), your Relic slots will level up as well. When you first unlock the Crucible, you'll have access to the first additional trait (a +5 increase to your Artifact's item level) in each slot. The second row unlocks at Artifact level 60, 63, and 66 (for the left, center, and right Relic slots respectively), and the third and final row unlocks at Artifact level 69, 72, and 75. This should all be pretty apparent when you look at those slots in-game, but may not be showing clearly via datamined info.

Q: What did you mean by "it can't double roll a trait"?

A: Just that you will never be able to upgrade a Relic to increase the same Artifact trait twice. If your Relic already has a bonus rank of Wrath of the Ashbringer on it, that trait will not be one of the three options presented in the bottom row of the Crucible's upgrade tree.

In other words, there's no risk of having your Wrath of the Ashbringer relic be "ruined" by not rolling a second bonus to Wrath of the Ashbringer, because that could never have happened in the first place. However, if you get a relic without Wrath of the Ashbringer, there's now a chance that it'll gain it from the Crucible.

Additionally, those three options will always be unique; it won't, for example, give you the "choice" between Deflection, Deflection, or Deflection. Aside from making sure you always have options, this means that your odds of having your favorite trait appear on a Relic you'd otherwise have discarded are actually pretty decent.

Q: How do the ranks for the first two rows work?

A: There are no such ranks. We think this is coming from some confusion about how the Netherlight Crucible is showing up in datamining, versus how it actually operates in-game. Once you've unlocked a row in the Crucible, you just select the option you like, and that's it - there's no additional leveling up of those options beyond that.

For those peeking into the data (or anyone else who might be curious): this is because of how we built the system to allow the unlockable effects to stack between each relic. It's just a subtle behind-the-scenes optimization on our end.

Q: What are the requirements to access the Netherlight Crucible?

A: Our intent at this stage of development is for there to only be two requirements: your character is level 110, and you have the account-wide achievement "Now You're Cooking With Netherlight." That achievement is given as part of the final chapters of the 7.3 story campaign, which is planned to open week 3 of the patch (so 15 days after release).

Q: Why are you adding this system? What’s with the RNG?

A: The Netherlight Crucible (aside from being an important part of the 7.3 storyline) is intended to help with an issue with Relic availability that players have been reporting for some time now. As Ion explained during our last Q&A, there are technical issues with the way Relics were built that limit which bonus traits can be available from raids. This has caused a number of raiders to feel as though their best bet is to run Mythic Keystone dungeons constantly in the hopes of having a Relic with their ideal bonus trait drop (and Titanforge for a high item level).

Those who were following development of Patch 7.2 may recall an earlier take on an improvement for this issue, where we experimented with adding a single, randomized second bonus trait to Relics. Ultimately, we decided that was the wrong approach, and wanted a system that put a little more control in players’ hands. So, while the Netherlight Crucible does still have an element of randomness, it presents you with several options to choose from.

To be clear: we believe that having some element of randomness is important. Our goal was not to simply allow players to choose the precise bonus traits they wanted (you already do that, more or less, when spending Artifact Power). We still want there to be those exciting moments where a Relic gives you a great outcome. The Netherlight Crucible is intended to make Relics more valuable on average, not to make all Relics be equal value.

Q: Will I be able to trade Relics with other players to see who gets the best options at the Crucible?

A: No. Previewing a Relic at the Netherlight Crucible will bind it to your character and remove the ability to trade it. This is because those trait options don’t actually exist on the Relic until you attune it to the Crucible, in a process similar to enchanting a piece of gear. It also prevents raid teams from feeling like they need to send everyone who might be interested in a Relic back to the Vindicaar before continuing.

Q: Will the Netherlight Crucible work on Relics acquired prior to 7.3 release?

A: Yes. However, keep in mind that it will take some time (likely several weeks) to unlock the later stages of the Netherlight Crucible, where the additional bonus traits come in. We don’t expect that stockpiling Relics prior to 7.3 will give any real advantage in practice.

Q: Doesn’t this just mean I’ll want my best two traits on each Relic now?

A: For the hardcore min/maxer, yes, there will still be a “best” outcome for your Relic configuration. However, there are now more Relics that can achieve that state (as Relics with your second-best trait can now roll your best trait at the Crucible), and you’ll encounter fewer “bad” Relics along the way.

Q: Why do I have to go back to the Netherlight Crucible to upgrade my Relic? Didn’t you want to get away from mechanics like that?

A: Players often compare this to the old Reforging system, and our dislike of having to visit a vendor after each and every upgrade. That hasn’t changed. The Netherlight Crucible only affects Relics – you won’t need to visit the Crucible every time you pick up a new pair of boots.

Each of these powers is randomly chosen from a pool of 6 possible unique effects.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Once you've unlocked a row in the Crucible, you just select the option you like, and that's it - there's no additional leveling up of those options beyond that.

Do we get to pick or not?

It would seem based on what I read that when the relic unlocks its level 2 (or when you bind it at the forge) that you get to choose between 1 shadow and 1 light property each one is chosen at random from its respective list of 6 options. So it is both a choice and random.

Anyone want to calculate for me at what AK that a single AP token would yield enough AP to instantly get an artifact to 52, so I don't have to bother farming it to get vanity items off the associated classes?

How does new artifact knowledge system works for leveling toons post 7.3 patch?

From my understanding we will get AK level per week, but how does that work for new lvl 110 toons? For instance, if im 4 weeks into the patch, all my 110 will have AK 45, however which AK level with have my character which is freshly 110? Will it be AK 41 or he will be kept up with the increase and have AK 45?

Because.. if they are not kept in pace with AK increase.. it will be quite difficult to catch up with new character because AK knowledge is now passively gained.

How does new artifact knowledge system works for leveling toons post 7.3 patch?

From my understanding we will get AK level per week, but how does that work for new lvl 110 toons? For instance, if im 4 weeks into the patch, all my 110 will have AK 45, however which AK level with have my character which is freshly 110? Will it be AK 41 or he will be kept up with the increase and have AK 45?

Because.. if they are not kept in pace with AK increase.. it will be quite difficult to catch up with new character because AK knowledge is now passively gained.

The increase in AK will be for every character created and not created. So if you choose to make an alt 5 weeks from now, when that character gets the artifact it'll be at AK46 already. The question is if you have to be 110, or do the quest to activate the Research on the campaign, or a fresh 98 can start getting AP at those levels.

"Hey guys remember when we removed reforging that you guys loved because we wanted you to be able to just equip upgrades? Now we are adding in randomized traits on loot that can only be looked at at a particular NPC in a particular location so you won't be able to tell if its an actual upgrade when the loot drops." -Blizz

The increase in AK will be for every character created and not created. So if you choose to make an alt 5 weeks from now, when that character gets the artifact it'll be at AK46 already. The question is if you have to be 110, or do the quest to activate the Research on the campaign, or a fresh 98 can start getting AP at those levels.

That's clearly written you have to be 110. That's the same for the account-bound instant-AK40 book, not usable below level 110. They don't want us to have a weapon level 60 at level 110, that would not make really sense I guess.

My question about this alt-stuff is : Once you HIT 110, you automatically unlock AK 40+, third relic and second tier of artifact skills without the long, boring and useless quests. But what about alts that are already 110 without this unlocked, already working on the quests (or not) ?

This Netherlight Crucible might be the worst addition in the game in the last few years. Your raidteam will loot a wonderful extra-titanforged relic, you'll give it to whoever (because you don't really know who it will benefit the more), then the lucky guy discovers it has shitty procs for him but best-in-slot for anyone else. Congratulations, you ruined a piece of loot.
And all that shit means the Artifact Power will ONLY be used to increase the Concordance to reach the required levels for the Relics extra skill ? No new artifact tree or branches ?

Anyone want to calculate for me at what AK that a single AP token would yield enough AP to instantly get an artifact to 52, so I don't have to bother farming it to get vanity items off the associated classes?

well at 55 its rougly 630/4 * 8mln = 1260mln AP so it should be instant or close to instant 52 traits.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by BossManRoth

"Hey guys remember when we removed reforging that you guys loved because we wanted you to be able to just equip upgrades? Now we are adding in randomized traits on loot that can only be looked at at a particular NPC in a particular location so you won't be able to tell if its an actual upgrade when the loot drops." -Blizz